News From Here & There

Philip Bloom teases with PMW-F3, NEX-FS100 and AG-AF100 tests
Philip has a Sony NEX-FS100 to play with "for a couple of days," and he's already posted a very initial impression and a slow-motion video:
After just 30 minutes of shooting with the FS100 it’s nothing like Nigel Cooper paints it as. It feels well made and the buttons are just fine!

Yes, the form factor is different and it is missing some key features. The Hassleblad style is interesting.
Today he went out shooting with three cameras; the Sony PMW-F3, Sony NEX-FS100 and Panasonic AG-AF100, and he's teased us with a 30 second clip, inviting people to guess which camera was used for which shot.

Most interesting to me is the variety of guesses; I'm not sure what that says either about the cameras, or the people viewing the content! Take a look, and take a guess. [Wow! My guess was way off; admittedly I didn't download the uploaded file, I only looked at the web video.]

He's also posted a low light test with all three cameras and the 5D Mark II. If you want low light performance, it looks like you want to get one of the Sony's!
PhilipBloom: Sony FS100…just my first impressions
Vimeo: Which camera is which? F3, FS100, AF101
Vimeo: Brief Sony FS100 daytime snippet
Vimeo: Low light test: FS100 F3 AF101 5DmkII



Looking for a Shotgun Mic?
Chad Johnson has posted a comparison of the RODE VideoMic [$149.00], Sennheiser MKE400 [$199.95], RODE VideoMic Pro [$229.00] and QueAudio Micro Shotgun [QueAudio]. You can hear the sound quality of each and make your own decision. In addition to comparing the sound quality, he also tests side rejection.
Vimeo: Shootout of the Mini Shotguns!



Does It Make Sense to Buy Gear?
The excitement at NAB for the new "DSLR" killer cameras - the Sony NEX-FS100, Panasonic AG-AF100, etc., prompted Ron Dawson to write an interesting article on whether it makes sense to buy gear versus renting it.
But, there’s one thing about these cameras that I feel will still make the DSLRs a leader in the market: price. Most of them start at around $5,000 and go up from there. Now, don’t get me wrong. Relatively speaking, that’s still an amazing price given the quality and feature set. And I think for those studios doing high paying gigs on a REGULAR BASIS, they could be great investments.
Don't be put off by the "Gear Lust" title, or even the introductory paragraphs, it's really a discussion of when it makes sense to spend money on gear, both from the perspective of what the usefulness of the gear is, as well as your financial situation and other options.
BladeRonner: Gear Lust – Does it Ever Make Sense to Buy?



The 20 Most Useless Degrees
The Daily Beast has put together a list of the 20 most useless degrees:
  • 1: Journalism
  • 4: Advertising
  • 14: Photography
  • 16: Art
It's looking bad for creatives; but then you see that Agriculture is #3 and Mechanical Engineering Technology is #8. Also, I couldn't figure out what the real criteria was...and what are the top 20 most useful degrees? A Bachelor in Fries from the Hamburger University?
TheDailyBeast: 20 Most Useless Degrees



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